Thursday, January 31, 2019

BeaverCastor canadensis
The North American beaver is one of two extant beaver species. It is
native to North America and introduced to Patagonia in South America and
some European countries. In the United States and Canada, the species
is often referred to simply as "beaver"... Other vernacular names,
including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species
from the other extant beaver species, Castor fiber, which is
native to Eurasia. The North American beaver is an official animal
symbol of Canada and is the official state mammal of Oregon. See also: The Gnawing Question of Saltwater Beavers
Scientists have long overlooked beavers in the intertidal zone. Now
they’re counting on the freshwater rodents to restore Washington’s
coastal ecosystems. Ben Goldfarb reports. (Hakai Magazine)

West Coast's biggest starfish vanishing amid disease, warming oceans, study finds
Once a common delight of every beachcomber, sunflower starfish — the
large, multi-armed starfish sometimes seen underwater at the near shore —
are imperiled by disease and ocean warming along the West Coast. The
devastation occurred over just a few years, and even affected starfish
in deeper water, according to research co-led by the University of
California, Davis and Cornell University published in the journal Science Advances.
At one time plentiful, the sea suns, or sunflower starfish, right now
cannot be found off the California coast and are rare northward into
Alaska, said Drew Harvell, the paper’s co-author and Cornell professor
of ecology and evolutionary biology. The starfish have become so rare
over the past three years the scientists consider them endangered in the
southern part of their range. Lynda Makes reports. (Seattle Times)

Better enforcement of habitat protection for endangered fish may be key to orca survival
If you want to keep Puget Sound's endangered orca whales from going
extinct, you have to make sure they have enough to eat. That’s a key
message from members of Gov. Jay Inslee’s orca recovery task
force....House Bill 1579 is mostly about protecting fish habitat by
enforcing existing law, so that the salmon have places to spawn and
successfully reproduce once they come home. The habitat also is crucial
for smaller forage fish that the salmon eat....The law at the heart of
this is Washington state's hydraulic code, which is supposed to protect
fish life from construction impacts in state waters.... Salmon habitat
is still shrinking because of illegal construction and permit
violations. Bellamy Pailthorp reports. (KNKX)

Canada’s energy regulator reviews pipeline's impact on climate change
This week, Canada’s energy regulator is listening to feedback on the
proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. It’s part of a two-step
process to consider the possible effects of the expansion on climate
change. After an application from the environmental group Stand.earth,
the National Energy Board has decided to ask if it has done enough to
consider how the proposed pipeline expansion may affect greenhouse gas
emissions. Craig McCulloch reports. (KNKX)

If you like to watch:Warming in the stratosphere leads to cold winters
n the first week of January, the Arctic stratosphere suddenly warmed up,
an occurrence known as “sudden stratospheric warming” (SSW). This
phenomenon results in cold winter weather, just the kind we are facing
now – ETH researchers have visualised the event that was observed before
the current one – in February 2018. Peter Rüegg reports. (ETH News]

Here’s why the water at Bellingham’s Scudder Pond is such an unnatural color
Nature is putting on an uncommon show at Scudder Pond, where the water
is a bright rusty-pink. The unusual hue has stirred wonder as well as
concern from nearby residents and visitors ambling through the 2-acre
nature preserve of ponds and wetlands at the northeast end of
Bellingham’s Whatcom Falls Park. The color covers about a third of the
pond. What’s causing it? An aquatic fern called Azolla microphylla, which is synonymous with Azolla mexicana,
according to Sara Brooke Benjamin, the environmental coordinator in the
Natural Resources division of the city’s Public Works Department. Kie
Relyea reports. (Bellingham Herald)

Saving streams from the manure of more than 3,000 horses
A new program addresses one of Snohomish County’s biggest water-quality
concerns. The program helps horse owners keep manure under control, turn
it into fertilizer and use it on their pastures. Julia-Grace Sanders
reports. (Everett Herald)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Northern fur sealCallorhinus ursinus
The northern fur seal is an eared seal found along the north Pacific
Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Sea of Okhotsk. It is the largest member
of the fur seal subfamily and the only living species in the genus Callorhinus. A single fossil species, Callorhinus gilmorei, is known from the Pliocene of Japan and western North America. (Wikipedia) See also: Northern fur seal pup rescued from waters near B.C.'s Hardwicke Island Harrison Mooney reports. (Vancouver Sun)

'Fish flush' could be part of orca and salmon recovery
The state Department of Ecology is unveiling a proposal that would
increase water spilled over Columbia and Snake river dams, to assist
downstream migration of young salmon and ultimately help endangered
killer whales. The expanded spring "fish flush" is part of Gov. Jay
Inslee's bid to increase fish populations in order to boost survival of
the critically endangered southern resident population of orcas off the
Washington coast and in inland waters. Joel Connelly reports.
(SeattlePI.Com)

So Far, El Niño Winter Brings Lessened Snowpack And Water Worries To Northwest
n the Northwest’s Cascades, there’s snow at high elevations, but it’s
scored by vertical lines showing where rain has run downhill. This warm
El Niño winter in the region is worrying water managers and farmers.
Many Washington and Oregon reservoirs aren’t filling up like they
should, and snowpack levels are below average in many areas. In Oregon,
snowpack near Mt. Hood is 50 percent of normal. A little better at 70
percent of normal statewide. Some reservoirs in Eastern Oregon are at,
or below 38 percent. In Washington, snowpack is around 79 percent of
normal — which could be bad news for spring crops. Anna King reports.
(KUOW)

Steelhead fishery set to open on Skagit, Sauk rivers
A catch-and-release steelhead fishery is set to open Friday on portions
of the Skagit and Sauk rivers. The season marks the second opportunity
for recreational fishermen to cast their lines for wild steelhead, which
were protected from fishing from 2010 to 2017 due to concern about
declining numbers of the fish. Wild steelhead have been listed as
threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act since 2007. The
catch-and-release fishery was reopened for the first time since the
closure in April 2018. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Bellingham wants to turn waste into something useful. Here’s how much that could cost.
Sewer rates will increase in the coming years to pay for an estimated
$196 million project to replace the aging incinerators at the Post Point
wastewater treatment plant with a proposed process that fits the city’s
Climate Protection Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gasses. How much
sewer bills will go up will be determined through a planned rate study.
Construction could start in 2023 at the plant at 200 McKenzie Ave., and
be completed in 2025. The City Council still must give final approval to
the proposed project although it has been guiding it along the way.
Members received a project update on Monday. Kie Relyea reports.
(Bellingham Herald)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
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Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Common juniper Juniperus communis
Common juniper was considered an important medicine for interior peoples
but it was not widely used on the Northwest Coast.... Juniper berries
are commonly used in European cooking as a flavoring for soups, stews,
cordials and gin. The species name communis means 'common,' which
this species is over much of the globe. Common juniper is the only
circumpolar comfier in the northern hemisphere. (Plants of the Pacific
Northwest Coast)

King County Council approves 6-month moratorium on major fossil-fuel facilities
The King County Council on Monday approved a six-month moratorium on
building or expanding major fossil-fuel infrastructure, joining other
local governments in the Northwest with similar measures that aim to use
local zoning laws to restrict fossil-fuel pipelines, storage facilities
and other infrastructure. The ordinance, introduced by Councilmember
Dave Upthegrove, disallows permitting for fossil-fuel projects in
unincorporated King County. It also directs the county executive’s
office to produce a survey of existing facilities, study those
facilities’ impacts on communities, analyze the existing regulations
that apply to them, recommend changes to regulations and permitting, and
evaluate county-owned facilities for health impacts. The ordinance also
declares a state of emergency. Evan Bush reports. (Seattle Times)

BC First Nation members say pipeline company removed cultural property
The British Columbia government says it will inspect the site of a
planned natural gas pipeline southwest of Houston following allegations
that the company building the project is violating its permits. Members
of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and supporters have alleged that
Coastal GasLink is engaging in construction activity without an
archaeological impact assessment and also destroyed traplines and tents
unnecessarily. The Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources
says in a statement that joint site inspection will be conducted by the
province’s Environmental Assessment Office and the B.C. Oil and Gas
Commission next week. Amy Smart reports. (Canadian Press)

Brinnon Group protests Jefferson County commissioners’ development decisions
Barbara Moore-Lewis, Julia Cochrane and Lys Burden held a vigil outside
of the Jefferson County Courthouse on Monday to bring attention to the
decisions made by the county commissioners last year over the Pleasant
Harbor Master Planned Resort in Brinnon. They are concerned about the
development’s impact and the possible destruction of the Kettles, a
natural formation of ponds that has cultural significance to the Port
Gamble S’Klallam Tribe. Jeannie McMacken reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

SeaWorld Orlando orca whale Kayla dies after illness
A 30-year-old orca whale has died after a brief illness at SeaWorld
Orlando, the park announced on Monday. Kayla, who was born in captivity
in Texas in 1988, was one of 20 whales still housed at the company's
parks. SeaWorld said Kayla's condition had deteriorated on Sunday after
she showed signs of illness on Saturday.... The whale's cause of death
is still unknown, pending a post-mortem. (BBC)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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Monday, January 28, 2019

Seeing Red
Laurie MacBride in Eye on Environment writes: "Yikes! That looks
painful,” I thought, when QT, our oldest resident buck, came for his
regular morning visit one day earlier this month. We’d seen him the
previous afternoon, but since then he’d shed his antlers – revealing
ruby-red, raw-looking mounting points (pedicles), each the size of an
old-fashioned silver dollar... Columbian black-tailed bucks shed their
antlers every winter, so I’m used to seeing “our boys” sans headgear for
a few months each year. But I’d never seen such freshly exposed
pedicles before. Thankfully, within a couple of days the mounting points
lost their redness and seemed to harden up, looking like painless brown
scabs rather than open wounds. Now, three weeks later, you can hardly
notice them at all."

Trans Mountain pipeline work destroyed salmon habitat, scientist says
Work on a Trans Mountain pipeline crossing in a British Columbia stream
has destroyed salmon habitat, raising concerns about the Crown
corporation’s ability to build infrastructure through waterways if the
expansion project proceeds, a scientist says. Mike Pearson says the
“amateur hour” work on the Stewart Creek crossing in Chilliwack will
reduce food sources for coho and chum salmon and limit their ability to
hide from predators. The fish are part of the diet of endangered
southern resident killer whales. “There was no consideration given
whatsoever to the habitat, which is just not acceptable,” said Pearson, a
biologist with 30 years’ experience.Laura Kane reports. (Canadian
Press)

Environmental education event marks 20 years
Students, educators and representatives from environmental groups met
Thursday at La Conner’s Maple Hall for the 20th Storming the Sound. The
daylong event brings together those with a common interest in
environmental education to hear from experts in the north Puget Sound
region. This year, presenters included members from local organizations
including the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Skagit Land Trust,
Skagit Watershed Council, Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group and North
Cascades Institute.... The event drew about 160 attendees, Storming the
Sound co-founder and planning team member Britta Eschete said. Kimberly
Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Homeowners keep building walls around Puget Sound. Biologists are taking out more
Biologists have long pointed to seawalls, bulkheads and other protective
structures known as “shoreline armoring” as a major environmental
problem for Puget Sound. More than 660 miles, or about 29 percent, of
the sound’s shoreline have been walled off over the decades, according
to the Puget Sound Partnership, a state agency.... Efforts to remove
armoring and restore more natural seaside habitats have had a hard time
catching up to waterfront homeowners’ ongoing construction of new armor.
Research by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shows that
single-family homeowners have built 68 percent of the armoring around
Puget Sound over the past decade. Half the shoreline losses have been
concentrated in just three counties: Mason, Island and Kitsap. But for
the past two years in a row, more walls have come down around Puget
Sound than have gone up, according to numbers released by the Puget
Sound Partnership in December. John Ryan reports. (KUOW)

B.C.'s oldest whale watching company packing up after 38 years as lease ends
British Columbia's first whale watching company is closing its doors at
the end of the month after nearly four decades of business, because the
company's lease is being terminated. Stubbs Island Whale Watching,
located on northern Vancouver Island, was put up for sale at the end of
last season. The owners had planned to keep running the tours until a
like-minded buyer was found and say the changes to the lease with
Telegraph Cove Resort were unexpected. Clare Hennig reports. (CBC)

To Help Salmon, Fish Advocates Want To Kill Gulls
There are a lot of predators known to eat imperiled salmon, from sea
lions to double-crested cormorants. For a long time, biologists thought
gulls weren’t a big part of the problem. Now, they say that was a
miscalculation. “When some analysis was done, the impact of gulls – just
in the section from McNary (Dam) to Bonneville (Dam) – nearly 20
percent of the fish taken were taken by gulls,” said Blaine Parker, an
avian predation coordinator with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission.... The solution he proposes? Lethal control of specific
problem gulls, along with non-lethal harassment.... Any killing of gulls
— referred to as “lethal management” or “lethal control” by the
government — is a tactic the Audubon Society of Portland vehemently
opposes. “It’s a continuation of a very unfortunate pattern of killing
wildlife to protect other wildlife,” said Bob Sallinger, conservation
director at the society. It’s not the wildlife that’s the problem,
Sallinger said, it’s the dams. Killing gulls, he said, is “pure
scapegoating.” Courtney Flatt reports. (NW Public Broadcasting)

Trump rollbacks for fossil fuel industries carry steep cost
As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules
for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars
in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature
deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming
emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive
fuels. The Associated Press analyzed 11 major rules targeted for repeal
or relaxation under Trump, using the administration’s own estimates to
tally how its actions would boost businesses and harm society. The AP
identified up to $11.6 billion in potential future savings for companies
that extract, burn and transport fossil fuels. Industry windfalls of
billions of dollars more could come from a freeze in vehicle efficiency
standards that will yield an estimated 79 billion-gallon (300
million-liter) increase in fuel consumption. On the opposite side of the
government’s ledger, buried in thousands of pages of analyses, are the
“social costs” of rolling back the regulations. Among them:... Matthew
Brown reports. (Associated Press)

How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green
On January 28, 1969, an oil well off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif.,
experienced a blowout. The result was an oil spill that at the time
ranked as the largest in U.S. history. The disaster, which made
headlines across the nation, helped create the modern environmental
movement. It also led to restrictions on offshore drilling —
restrictions the Trump Administration is trying to loosen. Jon Hamilton
reports. (NPR)

B.C. forests contribute 'hidden' carbon emissions that dwarf official numbers, report says
"Uncounted forest emissions" represent a major hole in B.C.'s climate
plan and show the need for a provincial forest emissions-reduction
strategy, according to a new report by an environmental group.
Climate-warming carbon emissions released from B.C. forests in both 2017
and 2018 were more than three times higher than emissions from all
other sources combined in 2016, the report from Sierra Club B.C.
estimates. The vast majority of the estimated 237 million tonnes emitted
by B.C.'s forests resulted from another record-breaking wildfire season
that burned more than 13,000 square kilometres of land. Ryan Patrick
Jones reports. (CBC)

Emissions from fishing vessels have quadrupled since 1950, UBC study shows
Even as the volume of seafood caught worldwide declines, greenhouse gas
emissions from fisheries continue to rise, hitting levels much higher
than previously thought, according to new research from the University
of B.C. The study estimates marine fishing vessels released 207 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2016, about 30 per cent higher than
previously estimated. That's despite the fact that overall catch has
been dropping since the 1990s.... The paper, published in the journal Marine Policy
this week, suggests that overall emissions from the world's marine
fisheries more than quadrupled between 1950 to 2016. The scientists
looked at each boat in fleets around the world and used their engine
capacity to calculate how much carbon dioxide they release by burning
fossils fuels. Bethany Lindsay reports. (CBC)

Carbon Pricing, Explained With Chickens
Chris Dunagan in Watching Our Water Ways writes: "If carbon
pricing has you confused, it may be time to return to basics with a
video featuring chickens as a way to understand the economic forces that
could bring greenhouse gases under control. The video focuses on the
two major pricing mechanisms — carbon tax and cap and trade...."
(EarthFix, 2016)

Oceans Are Getting Louder, Posing Potential Threats to Marine Life
Slow-moving, hulking ships crisscross miles of ocean in a lawn mower
pattern, wielding an array of 12 to 48 air guns blasting pressurized air
repeatedly into the depths of the ocean. The sound waves hit the sea
floor, penetrating miles into it, and bounce back to the surface, where
they are picked up by hydrophones. The acoustic patterns form a
three-dimensional map of where oil and gas most likely lie. The seismic
air guns probably produce the loudest noise that humans use regularly
underwater, and it is about to become far louder in the Atlantic. As
part of the Trump administration’s plans to allow offshore drilling for
gas and oil exploration, five companies have been given permits to carry
out seismic mapping with the air guns all along the Eastern Seaboard,
from Central Florida to the Northeast, for the first time in three
decades. The surveys haven’t started yet in the Atlantic, but now that
the ban on offshore drilling has been lifted, companies can be granted
access to explore regions along the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific. And
air guns are now the most common method companies use to map the ocean
floor. Jim Robbins reports. (NY Times)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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can unsubscribe at any time.

Friday, January 25, 2019

Striped surfperchEmbiotoca lateralis
Striped surfperch range from Wrangell, southeastern Alaska to Point
Cabras, Baja California, Mexico. They occur in waters up to 21 m (69
ft) deep along rocky coasts, in kelp beds, and occasionally in sandy
surf near rocks. Commonly caught by recreational harvesters within Puget
Sound and in embayments along the outer coast. (WDFW)

Civil penalties for polluters dropped dramatically in Trump’s first two years, analysis shows
Civil penalties for polluters under the Trump administration plummeted
during the past fiscal year to the lowest average level since 1994,
according to a new analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data. In
the two decades before President Trump took office, EPA civil fines
averaged more than $500 million a year, when adjusted for inflation.
Last year’s $72 million in fines was 85 percent below that amount,
according to the agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online
database. Cynthia Giles, who headed EPA’s enforcement office in the
Obama administration and conducted the analysis, said the
inflation-adjusted figures represent the lowest since the agency’s
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance was established. Juliet
Eilperin and Brady Dennis report. (Washington Post)

You’re all hypocrites: Why it’s a colossal cop-out to keep blaming Canada’s sky high emissions on Alberta
This week, the city of Victoria, B.C. announced plans to launch a class
action lawsuit against the oil and gas sector. The idea is to tally up
the various damages done to the city by climate change and send the bill
to the likes of Suncor or CNRL. It’s the latest salvo of a movement
that seeks to singularly blame the oil industry for climate change while
conveniently ignoring the millions of daily consumer choices, often
made by activists themselves, that contribute to Canada’s fossil fuel
addiction. Below, a quick primer on how some of Canada’s most anti-oil,
anti-pipeline corners seem to have no problem burning oceans of oil when
it’s for stuff they like. Tristin Hopper writes. (National Post)

We need to rethink everything we know about global warming
For a while now, the scientific community has known that global warming
is caused by humanmade emissions in the form of greenhouse gases and
global cooling by air pollution in the form of aerosols. However, new
research published in Science by Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Professor Daniel Rosenfeld shows that the degree to which aerosols cool
the earth has been grossly underestimated, necessitating a recalculation
of climate change models to more accurately predict the pace of global
warming.... With this new method, Rosenfeld and his colleagues were able
to more accurately calculate aerosols' cooling effects on the Earth's
energy budget. And, they discovered that aerosols' cooling effect is
nearly twice higher than previously thought. However, if this is true
then how come the earth is getting warmer, not cooler?... For Rosenfeld,
this discrepancy might point to an ever deeper and more troubling
reality. "If the aerosols indeed cause a greater cooling effect than
previously estimated, then the warming effect of the greenhouse gases
has also been larger than we thought, enabling greenhouse gas emissions
to overcome the cooling effect of aerosols and points to a greater
amount of global warming than we previously thought," he shared.
(Science Daily)

Children's climate rallies gain momentum in Europe
Thousands of schoolchildren in Europe are expected to skip classes and
rally for action on climate change. Children plan to stage a sit-in
outside city hall in Basel, Switzerland, and similar protests are
planned in Berlin and other German cities. They are inspired by
16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. She is in Davos, urging the
World Economic Forum (WEF) to ensure a greener future. On Thursday,
35,000 teenagers marched in Brussels against global warming. Thousands
of school pupils went on strike in Switzerland a week ago to demand
climate action. (BBC)

Engineers create decision-making tool for oil spill clean-up
A team of Southwest Research Institute engineers has created an
interactive decision tree aimed at finding the best solution for
specific oil spill scenarios. Numerous chemical dispersant technologies
are available to address different types of oil spills and countless
variables and external conditions can play into the effectiveness of any
given dispersant. SwRI's decision-making tool helps bridge this gap to
determine how a dispersant technology will perform under different spill
scenarios.... The interactive decision-making tree was created with the
programming language Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Excel,
with the aim of making it accessible to as many people as possible. It
contains hundreds of scenario combinations, allowing a user to select
certain environmental and oil conditions, and outputs the most efficient
dispersant delivery approach and equipment to clean up the spill.
(Phys.Org)

Kauai: World’s Biggest Solar Power Plant Relies On A Flock Of Sheep
A new solar generating plant capable of producing and storing power in
daylight and then releasing it at night will be partially dependent on
300 sheep. The plant was commissioned Jan. 8 by the Kauai Island Utility
Cooperative and pushes the utility over the 50 percent mark in terms of
the amount of its power that comes from renewable sources. It’s the
second such plant put in service by KIUC and, according to David
Bissell, the co-op’s CEO, it is currently the largest such installation
in the world. That’s a distinction which, in a rapidly evolving
industry, it’s unlikely to have for long. KIUC believes it is now the
most advanced utility in the country in the context of producing
electricity from alternative sources that can serve customers virtually
around the clock. Allan Parachini reports. (Civil Beat)

Salish Sea Science
...Two years ago, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities and the Whatcom
MRC formed the North Sound Stewards, a program in which citizen
scientists receive training to build a reliable stock of data on various
plants and animals from local beaches and tidal zones. The goal is to
inform Salish Sea recovery and protection efforts. For example, RE
Sources is working with the Washington Department of Natural Resources
to use citizen science data in updated management and oil spill response
plans. “We need to make sure our elected officials and the public have
both the information and motivation to act. Who better to help provide
these than a voter who has also helped watch over our precious ocean
ecosystems?” said Chris Brown, Whatcom Marine Resource Committee (MRC)
member and citizen scientist. To learn more or to become a citizen
scientist, visit re-sources.org/north-sound-stewards. Eleanor Hines
writes. (Cascadia Weekly)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Shaggy mouse nudibranchAeolidia papillosa (Linnaeus, 1761)
This large aeolid grows to about 120mm in length and its body is covered
with close obliquely arranged rows of flattened cerata. Its size and
relative abundance have made it a popular research animal with many
studies on aspects of its biology, natural history and ecology. It
appears to feed almost exclusively on sea anemones. Common on the
Atlantic coast of Europe and North America and the Pacific coast of
North America. Common on the Atlantic coast of Europe and North America
and the Pacific coast of North America. (Sea Slug Forum)

The orca recovery plans that could become state law
After a year of task force meetings, it’s time to find out if the
governor’s ambitious plans to save the endangered southern resident
orcas will turn into state law. It’s in the hands of state lawmakers now
as they introduced several bills in Olympia Wednesday. The legislation
is based on several of the governor's orca task force recommendations.
Some will be a harder sell than others. [Read about House Bill 1580 and
Senate Bill 5577 which deal with aspects of vessel noise; House Bill
1578 and Senate Bill 5578 which deal with improving oil transport
safety; House Bill 1579 and Senate Bill 5580 which increase habitat for
Chinook and forage fish.] Simone Del Rosario reports. (KCPQ)

Health assessments planned for two ailing orcas
Killer whale experts who are not employed by the federal government are
preparing to assess the health conditions of two Southern Resident orcas
that appear malnourished and may be dying. Any decisions regarding
potential medical treatment would be made later. During a conference
call on Tuesday, marine mammal biologists, veterinarians and other orca
experts decided to take minimally invasive steps, such as collecting
breath and fecal samples from the whales. “What came out was a unanimous
decision that we should try to do something,” said Joe Gaydos, a
veterinarian with SeaDoc Society who helped organize the meeting.
“Everyone on the phone was saying, why should we say we can’t do
anything without at least getting some health samples first.” Chris
Dunagan reports. (Puget Sound Institute)

Swinomish lawsuit against BNSF headed to appeals court
An ongoing lawsuit between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and
BNSF Railway will be heard by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The
case centers around a right-of-way easement signed in 1976 by the tribe
and BNSF that allows trains to cross tribal land to reach the oil
refineries on March Point. The Swinomish sued BNSF in 2015, alleging the
company violated the terms of the easement by failing to disclose the
cargo of certain trains traveling through the reservation and not
seeking approval for an increase in rail traffic, according to court
documents. The original lawsuit sought an injunction to force BNSF to
abide by the terms of the easement — one train a day in each direction
and to have those trains be a maximum of 25 cars.... According to court
documents, BNSF argues that the Interstate Commerce Commission
Termination Act of 1995 means the rail company’s obligation to deliver
goods to its customers supersedes its legal obligation to the tribe.
Brandon Stone reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

New rules for B.C. farmers take aim at agricultural waste
B.C.'s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy is announcing
new rules for farmers, intended to protect water sources and "provide
more clarity for the agricultural sector." According to the ministry,
the rules will protect groundwater with proper manure and nutrient
storage, ban direct discharges, allow increased monitoring in high-risk
areas, and require record keeping.... The rules will come into effect at
the end February, but a government release says "more complicated
elements will be gradually phased in over the next 10 years." Rafferty
Baker reports. (CBC)

Tidal forests offer hope for salmon
Can scientists bring back the lost tidal forests of Puget Sound? It
could take generations but restoring this rare habitat will pay big
dividends for Puget Sound’s salmon. Jeff Rice reports. (Salish Sea
Currents)

Cedar Grove again asks Legislature to limit odor lawsuits
A bill to shield composting operations from lawsuits is getting another
look from state lawmakers. Cedar Grove, a composting firm with a history
of odor-related disputes in Snohomish County, is behind the effort to
amend state law to treat composting as an agricultural activity entitled
to protection from nuisance suits. House Bill 1167 received its first
hearing Wednesday in the House Rural Development, Agriculture, &
Natural Resources Committee. Virtually identical legislation passed out
of this committee in 2017 and 2018 but did not advance further. Jerry
Cornfield reports. (Everett Herald)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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can unsubscribe at any time.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Rhinoceros AukletCerorhinca monocerata
Named for the vertical white plate at the base of its bill, the
Rhinoceros Auklet is a bird of the coastlines and open seas of the north
Pacific. The only member of its genus, it is closely related to
puffins. The oldest recorded Rhinoceros Auklet was at least 28 years, 3
months old. It was banded in 1984 in British Columbia,and found in
Oregon in 2010. (All About Birds)

Prepare For 'Tidal Anomalies' In Puget Sound Wednesday
Puget Sound is under multiple weather warnings and advisories, including
a coastal flooding advisory that will coincide with high tides on
Wednesday morning. As of Tuesday night, there was a flood warning (Mason
County), winter storm warning (Cascades in King County), a winter
weather advisory (eastern Cascades slopes), a small craft advisory (all
of Puget Sound), and the coastal flooding advisory, which impacts places
like Shoreline, Seattle, and Edmonds. The National Weather Service says
to prepare for "tidal anomalies" in those areas on Wednesday morning as
high tides peak between 5 and 8 a.m. The advisory is in effect until 10
a.m., however. Neal McNamara reports. (Patch)

Orcas, climate, oil spills and more – can Inslee, Dems perform in just 105 days?
A sweeping array of Washington legislative proposals to counter climate
change have their best chance to pass into law in 2019 than at any time
in recent years. But it won’t be easy for majority Democrats and Gov.
Jay Inslee, a climate action advocate, to get all they want in the
105-day session that began last week. The thrust to combat climate
change comes on the heels of a new Crosscut/Elway poll finding that the
number of Washington voters choosing the environment as their top issue
doubled — to one out of six voters. Five times that many want action on
preventing the smoky wildfires that scientists say will likely increase
as the planet warms, the poll showed. 2019 marks the first year in seven
that Democrats hold a significant majority in both the House and
Senate. Yet Democrats are not guaranteed to be united. They have not
fallen uniformly in line behind Inslee on climate policy in the past,
assisting in killing a series of climate-policy losses on the governor’s
part. Brad Shannon reports. (Investigate West)

B.C. files final argument to NEB against Trans Mountain Pipeline
The Government of British Columbia has filed its final argument in the
National Energy Board's (NEB) reconsideration of the Trans Mountain
Pipeline Expansion Project. The submission recommends against approval
of the project and outlines concerns about the impact an oil spill could
have on the environment and coast, as well as the ability to
effectively respond to a spill. "The province maintains the proponent
has failed to prove the case that twinning the existing pipeline and
significantly expanding current volumes of bitumen crossing B.C. is
necessary," said a statement from the Ministry of Environment and
Climate Change Strategy. The province's submission also highlights the
potential impacts that increased oil tanker traffic would have on
southern resident killer whales.... The NEB's final report has to be
submitted to the federal cabinet by Feb. 22, 2019. (CBC)

UW research: Western glaciers losing ice at an increasing rate, but less so in Washington state
It appears a pattern of heavy storms in the Pacific Northwest may have
obscured the effects of climate change over the past 20 years.
Researchers here have identified a southern shift in the jet stream as a
source of heavy precipitation that built up snow pack and glacier mass
in Washington and Oregon, while they were declining elsewhere. David
Shean, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at
the University of Washington, uses high-resolution satellite images to
get precise measurements of glaciers and ice mass. For a recent study,
Shean teamed up with colleagues at the University of Northern British
Columbia to assemble thousands of satellite pictures of North America's
western glaciers. They mapped and modeled changes in the ice since 2000.
Shean says they found a rapid increase in ice loss over the past 18
years overall, but less happening in the Pacific Northwest. Bellamy
Pailthorp reports. (KNKX)

Concern About Global Warming Among Americans Spikes, Report Says
In 2018, Americans watched as California towns were incinerated by
fires, hurricanes devastated coastal communities and a government report
sounded the alarm about the impacts of a changing climate. All those
factors contributed to significant changes in perceptions of global
warming in the U.S., according to the authors of a new public opinion
survey. The proportion of Americans who said global warming is
“personally important” to them jumped from 63 percent to 72 percent from
March to December of last year. There has also been an 8-percent rise
in the number of Americans who are “very worried” about global warming –
29 percent said they feel that way, while 40 percent said they are
“somewhat worried.” And 56 percent of Americans said their family will
be harmed by global warming. Ian Stewart reports. (NPR)

Some elected Aboriginal councils want LNG pipeline for better lives
It was a difficult decision to sign a benefit sharing agreement with
Coastal GasLink that would allow for a natural gas pipeline through the
Wet'suwet'en territory, but a necessary one, an elected band council
member says. Joseph Skin is with the Skin Tyee band, a community of
about 180 people within the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, and said many
members live in "poverty" on the reserve and the agreement offered an
opportunity for a better future. Skin said he spent most of his life
living in a home shared by three or four families. There was no running
water in homes on the reserve until 10 or 15 years ago, he said....
Coastal GasLink has said it has signed agreements with all 20 elected
First Nations bands along the pipeline route from northeastern B.C. to
LNG Canada's $40-billion export facility on the coast in Kitimat. Amy
Smart reports. (Canadian Press) See also: Canadian musicians sign letter backing opponents of Coastal GasLink pipeline Brent Jang reports. (Globe and Mail)

Study: Millions Of Americans Could Be Drinking Water High In Nitrates
More people than expected are drinking water that could be harmful to
their health. That’s according to a new study that looked at a water
contaminate that’s been an issue in one of the Northwest’s most
productive farming regions. The study, published in the journal Environmental Health,
found more than 5.6 million Americans may be drinking water that’s
contaminated with nitrates. The study found Latino residents are
disproportionately drinking water that’s often more contaminated than
other areas. At high levels, nitrates can be harmful to infants, causing
what’s known as “blue baby syndrome.” Lower exposure levels to nitrates
can contribute to other health problems, like birth defects and some
cancers, said Laurel Schaider, the study’s lead author and an
environmental chemist at Silent Spring Institute. Courtney Flatt
reports. (NW Public Broadcasting)

Now, your tug weather--
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-
223 AM PST Wed Jan 23 2019
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING
TODAY
SW wind 15 to 25 kt easing to 5 to 15 kt this morning
then becoming E 10 to 20 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft
subsiding to 1 to 3 ft. W swell 12 ft at 14 seconds. A chance of
showers in the morning then a slight chance of showers in the
afternoon.
TONIGHT
S wind to 10 kt. Wind waves 1 ft or less. W swell
11 ft at 14 seconds subsiding to 9 ft at 13 seconds after
midnight.

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you
can unsubscribe at any time.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Zebra musselDreissena polymorpha
Zebra mussels are native to the Caspian Sea, and were introduced into
the Great Lakes in the mid 1980’s in ships ballast water. Zebra mussels
have since spread to more twenty states, and two Canadian Provinces.
Because the mussels can live out of water for up to a month if they are
not subjected to heat or extreme drying conditions they may be easily
transported on recreational boats.... Usually the zebra mussel is about
the size of an adult fingernail, but can be as large as two inches, or
as small as a sesame seed. Where introduced they threaten native fish
and wildlife by consuming available food and smothering native species.
They clog power plant and other water intakes, costing taxpayers
millions. (WDFW)

Trans Mountain says significant environmental effects of marine shipping are justified
Serious impacts on the environment from the Trans Mountain pipeline
expansion are justified, according to the company. Trans Mountain made
that argument to the National Energy Board last week as part of the
Reconsideration process after the Federal Court of Appeal quashed the
project. The NEB will consider environmental effects on marine shipping
from the Westridge terminal in Burnaby as part of the reconsideration
process. Trans Mountain acknowledges conclusions already drawn by the
NEB that the expansion will have serious environmental effects on the
southern resident killer whales, Indigenous peoples traditional use of
marine areas and culture, greenhouse gas emissions, Pacific salmon and
steelhead trout, and environmental effects that could come from an oil
spill. Lauren Boothby reports. (CityNews)

Punish polluters with jail if necessary: B.C. poll
British Columbians are almost unanimous in their disdain for polluters,
even among industries that enrich us economically, according to a poll
released Monday. More than 80 per cent support strong penalties —
including jail time — for people and companies that damage our natural
environment, according to a poll of 1,658 British Columbians conducted
by McAllister Opinion Research. The poll was commissioned by the Real
Estate Foundation of B.C., a philanthropic group directed by appointees
from the real estate industry and government. The margin of error is
plus or minus 2.41 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Similarly, 81 per cent
want to see large companies finance a pool of funds that would pay for
the full cost of restoration after logging, mining and oil and gas
extraction. Randy Shore reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Bill Would Empower The State To Buy Colstrip Power Plant
Lawmakers in Helena are starting to debate whether the state could
borrow up to $500 million to buy the coal-fired power plant in
Colstrip. The future of the plant is up in the air. The West Coast
consumers who Colstrip sends most of its power to are pushing away from
coal-powered electricity due to climate change concerns. Coal power is
also becoming more expensive relative to electricity generated by
natural gas and renewables. "There’s many people that work at Colstrip
asked me to introduce a bill to save their jobs,” Billings Republican
Representative Rodney Garcia said. Garcia introduced the Montana Energy
Security Act (HB 203), Monday. It would allow the state to sell bonds to
finance the purchase of the coal-fired power plant, and allow plant
workers to keep all the benefits they had under their private employer.
Corin Cates-Carney reports. (Montana Public Radio)

Pipeline explosions to protests: Companies need to communicate with public during crisis, urges consultant
Some natural resource companies in Northern B.C. are pre-emptively
preparing in case disaster hits by coming up with a communication
strategy for incidents from pipeline explosions to protests. Silence is
the worst path a company can take during a crisis, according to
communications consultant Martin Livingstone. "In this era of instant
notifications and social sharing, companies in the crosshairs really
need to act swiftly and decisively in responding to a crisis," said
Livingstone, who works with the Vancouver-based Living Communications
Inc. He's in Prince George this week, leading a workshop on crisis
communication at the annual B.C. Natural Resources Forum. Clare Hennig
reports. (CBC)

Muir steps down as Salish director
Seth Muir is stepping down after seven years at the helm of Salish Sea
Expeditions, the nonprofit has announced. Muir’s last day as executive
director was Jan. 16. He is leaving to become the executive director
with Sail Sand Point.... The board for Salish Sea Expeditions has
appointed Matt Eldridge as interim executive director while the
organization conducts a national search for a new director. Previously,
Eldridge served on Salish’s board and separately as its interim
executive director. He also chaired the search committee that hired Muir
in early 2012. (Bainbridge Review)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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can unsubscribe at any time.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Witch Hazel: Queen of Winter
Imagine walking into your garden on a frosty midwinter morning. The sun
is just peeking through the overhanging branches of a magnolia. You come
across a small tree, barren of leaves but possessing a great multitude
of curious golden yellow tufts. As the sun illuminates these tiny fists,
suddenly wispy fingers unfurl in response to the new warmth: the
shrub’s spidery flowers burst forth along the branches like tiny sulfur
flames. Then your olfactory senses are treated to an intoxicating citrus
scent. A smile crosses your face. Just maybe, you think, immersed in
the sublime winter luminosity of a witch hazel, spring is not that far
off. Earl Nickel writes. (Pacific Horticulture)

Orca task force is briefed on state budget
Gov. Jay Inslee is committed to saving the Southern resident orca
population and has requested more than $1 billion to do so. Members of
Inslee’s Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force attended a webinar
hosted by the Washington State Office of Financial Management on Jan. 10
to get a breakdown of the proposed budget which contains several of its
recommendations....Inslee’s orca budget allocates $66 million to
operating costs, $594.8 million toward capital improvements and $408.7
million to transportation improvements. Financial management
representatives hope that the budget is signed by Inslee no later than
June so initiatives can begin. Mandi Johnson reports. (Islands Weekly)
See also: Orcas, climate, oil spills and more – can Inslee, Dems make progress in just 105 days? Brad Shannon reports. (Investigate West)

Scientists see another possible threat to orcas: pink salmon
Over the years, scientists have identified dams, pollution and vessel
noise as causes of the troubling decline of the Pacific Northwest’s
resident orcas. Now, they may have found a new surprising culprit: pink
salmon. Four salmon researchers were perusing data on the website of the
Center for Whale Research, which studies the orcas, several months ago
when they noticed a startling trend: that for the past two decades,
significantly more of the whales have died in even-numbered years than
in odd years. In a newly published paper, they speculate that the
pattern is related to pink salmon, which return to the Salish Sea
between Washington state and Canada in enormous numbers every other year
— in odd-numbered years — though they’re not sure how. They suspect
that the huge runs of pink salmon, which have boomed under conservation
efforts and changes in ocean conditions in the past two decades, might
interfere with the whales’ ability to hunt their preferred prey, chinook
salmon. Gene Johnson reports. (Associated Press)

Flood of response pushes completion of latest Tacoma LNG review to March
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has slowed its time line for completing its
review of comments on the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact
Statement on Puget Sound Energy’s liquefied natural gas facility planned
for Tacoma. In an update emailed Friday (Jan. 19), the agency said its
work is “ongoing and we do not anticipate completing it until March 29,
2019.” The agency had previously targeted Feb. 1 as its anticipated
completion date. It’s been nearly a year since the agency called for the
SEIS for greenhouse gas emissions analysis and impacts for the Tacoma
LNG site. Debbie Cockrell reports. (Tacoma News Tribune)

Researchers probe into region's 'blue carbon'
The slender green leaves of eelgrass that sway in the waters of Padilla,
Samish and Skagit bays are widely recognized as key habitat for species
including salmon, crab and great blue herons. Eelgrass meadows are
also starting to be seen as sources of "blue carbon" — carbon dioxide
found in plants and sediment in coastal habitats that if released could
contribute to climate change. An effort is underway to document how much
blue carbon coastal habitats, including those along Skagit County's
shoreline, are capable of holding. Understanding what's there and how
fast it can accumulate is the first step toward encouraging preservation
and restoration of coastal habitats to help limit the world's
greenhouse gas emissions, according to scientists, government agencies
and restoration advocates. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley
Herald)

Burnaby Mountain fire lights concerns around Kinder Morgan tank farm
Opponents of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project said they are worried
about fire risk at the Kinder Morgan tank farm on Burnaby Mountain,
after flames from a dramatic fire on Saturday came within hundreds of
metres of tanks storing petroleum products. "I'm glad there were no
explosions because that tank farm that is just 250 metres from there is
like a bomb waiting to go off in our community," said Elan Gibson with
Burnaby Residents Opposed to Kinder Morgan. On Saturday, a fire broke
out in a storage facility at a property owned by a demolition company on
Aubrey Street near Pinehurst Drive. The facility is surrounded by
forest, with a residential neighbourhood on one side and the tank farm
on the other. It took 34 firefighters to keep the flames from spreading,
while the structure was destroyed. (CBC)

Statewide bans on plastic bags, straws are on Dems' green to-do list in Olympia
As an Edmonds City Council member in 2009, Strom Peterson championed the
city’s initiative to become the first municipality in Washington to ban
plastic grocery bags. Ten years later, he’s the lead sponsor of a bill
in the state Legislature to ban single-use plastic bags across the
state. HB 1205, which is supported by the Washington Hospitality
Association, would prohibit retail establishments from giving customers
single-use plastic carryout bags, or paper bags that do not meet
recycling requirements. With hefty majorities in both chambers of the
Legislature, Democrats say the time is ripe for a shift away from the
material that has polluted waters and clogged recycling centers. Jake
Goldstein-Street reports. (Seattle Tims) See also: Edmonds bans single-use plastic containers
The city already prohibited plastic bags. It will target plastic straws
and utensils next. Lizz Giordano reports. (Everett Herald)

Scientists Puzzled By High Cancer Rate Among West Coast Sea Lions
Erin Ross writes: "I watched a sea lion die last summer. The large
animal was emaciated, its spine and ribs visible below its fur. Its hind
limbs were immobile as it dragged itself from the shore to the water.
Once in the harbor, without the use of its rear flippers, the sea lion
struggled to stay afloat. It sank, resurfaced and sank again. I called a
hotline, but it was too late. The animal never came back up. I later
learned that it probably had an advanced form of cancer. This particular
cancer starts in the genitals and then attacks the spine before
spreading throughout the body. It’s extremely common — in fact, sea
lions have one of the highest rates of cancer among all wild animals.
Scientists are just beginning to understand the causes...." (OPB)

An Important New Book Describes How the WA Shellfish Industry is Poisoning our Shoreline Environment
Cliff Mass writes; "In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote a book, Silent Spring,
that documented the profound harm of the pesticide DDT on the natural
world. This book led to the of banning of DDT and energized the U.S.
environment movement. During the past week, an important new book has
been published, one that may well join the ranks of Silent Spring. The
book, Toxic Pearl, describes the poisoning of Washington State's
shorelines by some politically connected and highly irresponsible
members of the shellfish industry. Toxic Pearl documents the
spraying of herbicides and pesticides over State shorelines from Puget
Sound to Willapa Bay, the careless spread of plastic pollution, and the
physical destruction of shorelines areas by some members of the
shellfish industry more concerned with profit than the environment...."
(Weather and Climate Blog)

County officials may be excluded from Sen. Ranker's seat
The state Democratic Party has determined that two candidates to replace
Sen. Kevin Ranker are ineligible because they serve on county boards
that will vote on the appointment. Anna Berch-Norton, acting chair of
the 40th District Democrats Executive Board, said the state party
reached its conclusion after being provided a legal opinion by state
Attorney General Bob Ferguson.... The state party’s determination means
Whatcom County Councilman Rud Browne and San Juan County Councilman
Jamie Stephens cannot be appointed to fill Ranker’s seat, Berch-Norton
said. Brandon Stone reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Haida Gwaii home to a distinct but vulnerable pocket of northern goshawks
Haida Gwaii's population of northern goshawks are the last remnant of a
highly distinct genetic cluster of the birds, a new study by University
of British Columbia researchers has found. Researchers estimate the
population of birds may have been evolving separately on Haida Gwaii for
20,000 years — right around the last time the glaciers melted, causing
the sea levels to rise and potentially separating the birds from their
kin. While the birds can fly long distances — with goshawks from
Michigan and Manitoba travelling as far away as the central United
States — they don't seem to like travelling over water, which could
account for their long-term isolation, said study co-lead Armando
Geraldes. Hina Alam reports. (Canadian Press) See also: Six Vancouver Island bald eagles dead, six in treatment due to poison (Vancouver Sun)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
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can unsubscribe at any time.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Green-winged tealAnas carolinensis
The green-winged teal (Anas carolinensis or Anas crecca carolinensis)
is a common and widespread duck that breeds in the northern areas of
North America except on the Aleutian Islands... This dabbling duck is
strongly migratory and winters far south of its breeding range. It is
highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large
flocks. In flight, the fast, twisting flocks resemble waders. This is
the smallest North American dabbling duck. (Wikipedia)

After 20 years and $1 billion spent on Washington state salmon programs, fish still declining, new report says
After 20 years and nearly $1 billion spent on Washington state salmon
recovery programs, most salmon are still in decline, a state report has
found. The 2018 State of the Salmon report
by the Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office is a sobering read: Across the
state, and in its jewel, Puget Sound, salmon are struggling to survive
despite efforts of every kind to prevent extinction. The news isn’t all
bad: some runs, such as summer chum on the Hood Canal and fall chinook
in the Snake River are doing better and near their recovery goals. And
habitat restoration, from taking out dikes to fixing highway culverts
that block salmon migration boosts salmon populations, the report found.
The problem is that more habitat is being destroyed, more quickly than
it can be fixed as the state continues a turbocharged growth spurt that
is chewing up salmon habitat with roads, pavement, housing and
commercial development. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Navy dumps hazardous substances including copper, zinc into Puget Sound, Washington state AG says
The U.S. Navy dumped the equivalent of 50 dump truck loads of solid
material, including copper and zinc, into Puget Sound and must be
stopped before it does so again, according to Washington state Attorney
General Bob Ferguson. The Navy provides dock space at Naval Base Kitsap
for decommissioned, nonoperational vessels to be dismantled, recycled
and disposed of. While cleaning the ship Independence at the yard in
January 2017 before shipment to Texas for disposal, the Navy dumped the
scraped-off paint into Sinclair Inlet, in violation of state and federal
laws, according to a news release issued by Ferguson....Ferguson’s
office notified the Navy on Thursday of the state’s intent to join a
suit in federal court to ask the Navy to clean up the mess and to
require the Navy to stop scraping ships at Navy Base Kitsap and dumping
the material in Sinclair Inlet. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

National Energy Board rejects Burnaby's bid to stop work at Trans Mountain pipeline terminal
The National Energy Board has rejected a request by Burnaby, B.C., that
it rescind orders allowing the company building the Trans Mountain
pipeline expansion to conduct work at the city's terminal. The Metro
Vancouver city had asked that the board cancel the orders after the
Federal Court of Appeal quashed government approval for the expansion
project. Burnaby had argued the terminal work was primarily related to
the project, but the board said in a written decision Thursday that it's
upholding the orders, allowing Trans Mountain Corp. to do
infrastructure work at the Burnaby Terminal. (Canadian Press)

State senator puts Inslee's clean energy bill on fast track
Gov. Jay Inslee is pushing to get Washington state to 100 percent clean
energy by 2045. And he's not alone. Dozens of environmental groups,
labor organizations, local governments and clean energy businesses also
support the idea. The 100 percent clean energy bill would phase out all
coal from the state’s grid by 2025. It would set interim targets for
2030, and increase investments in renewable sources and energy
efficiency to get to carbon-free electricity by 2045. The Senate
Environment, Energy and Technology Committee held its first hearing on
the measure (Senate Bill 5116) Thursday morning. As he opened up public
testimony, Democratic Sen. Reuven Carlyle, the committee's chairman,
said he's aiming for a vote on the bill next week. Bellamy Pailthorp
reports. (KNKX)

Tribe calls for NOAA to help rescue two ailing orcas, but scientists sent home during government shutdown
The Lummi Nation urged federal officials Wednesday to launch an
emergency response to help two ailing southern-resident killer whales —
but how do you call for help? The unprecedented government shutdown,
continuing into its fourth week, has stymied any attempt by the tribe or
veterinarians ready to help killer whales K25 and J17, among the 75
remaining southern residents that frequent Puget Sound. The policy
makers and scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration who would approve and coordinate any such response, such
as for the emergency rescue plan for J50 last summer, are unavailable
during the shutdown. Lynda Mapes reports. (Seattle Times)

Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse: How To See It In Puget Sound
A supermoon and total lunar eclipse will coincide Jan. 20-21 in a rare
celestial occurrence that will be visible across North America. Whether
you'll be able to see this event — also known for reasons we'll get into
later as a "blood moon" and a "wolf moon" — in the Seattle area is
dependent on the weather, of course. Can you guess what our forecast
calls for this weekend? From the National Weather Service: Sunday Night:
Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 38. Monday Night: Rain
likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. Neal McNamara reports.
(Patch)

Thar She Grows: A New Way to Tell a Gray Whale’s Age
If you see a gray whale cruising offshore, it’s fairly easy to guess,
based on little more than its size, whether it’s an adult or a juvenile.
But without digging through a dead whale’s earwax or examining its
ovaries, determining age is surprisingly difficult. A Canadian
researcher has now discovered a novel method to eyeball a gray whale’s
age that is much less invasive than existing techniques. By analyzing
the relationship between whales’ sizes and their ages, Selina Agbayani, a
master’s student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in
Vancouver, has plotted growth curves that describe in detail how gray
whales change in length and weight as they age. Larry Pynn reports
(Hakai Magazine)

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"Salish Sea News & Weather" is compiled as a community service
by Mike Sato. To subscribe, send your name and email to msato (@)
salishseacom.com. Your email information is never shared and you
can unsubscribe at any time.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Pacific lugwormAbarenicola pacifica
Lives in an L-shaped burrow, head down. It everts its esophagus
then pulls it in, thus ingesting mud and feeding on organisms such
as nematodes within it. Periodically it backs up to near the
surface to defecate, forming the characteristic mound around its
burrow. The mound will often have coils of castings roughly 1/2
cm in diameter. The lugworm pulses its body while within the
burrow to bring in oxygenated water. Japan, Pacific coast from
Alaska south to Humboldt Bay in northern California. (Walla Walla
University)

Poll:
After 2018's smoke and dead orcas, voters want environmental
action
While Washington has a reputation as a greener-than-average state,
voters have a history of giving less priority to the environment
when it’s pitted against other issues like education and
homelessness. From 2009 to 2018, no more than 7 percent of
respondents in Elway polls chose “the environment” as a top
priority. But in a new Elway/Crosscut Poll released this month,
the environment doubled its support to earn its highest marks
since 2001, when interest was at 15 percent. Elway Research
President Stuart Elway says it’s rare for environmental interest
to break single digits. Manola Secaira reports. (Crosscut)

Nearly
6 in 10 Canadians call lack of new pipeline capacity a
'crisis,' poll suggests
A slight majority of Canadians are calling the lack of new oil
pipeline capacity in the country a "crisis," according to findings
from a recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute. The institute
surveyed 4,024 Canadian adults between Dec. 21 and Jan. 3, and
found that 58 per cent affirmed that the lack of new oil pipeline
capacity constitutes a crisis, while 42 per cent said it does
not. But responses varied widely though across the provinces,
with a high of 87 per cent of Albertans polled calling it a crisis
while, at the low end, only 40 per cent of Quebecers had a similar
sentiment. (CBC)

Republicans
Praise, Democrats Grill Andrew Wheeler In EPA Chief
Confirmation Hearing
Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who has been serving as the
acting EPA administrator since July, faced Senate lawmakers on
Wednesday for his first confirmation hearing to lead the agency.
He defended his record on rolling back Obama-era environmental
regulations as Democrats assailed his ties to business and his
lack of urgency on the issue of climate change. “The Trump
Administration has proven that burdensome environmental
regulations are not necessary to drive environmental progress,”
Wheeler said. “I am very proud of the work I did.” Daniella
Cheslow reports. (NPR)

Banned
Fish Trap Returns To Columbia As Sustainable Way To Catch
Salmon
About half the salmon swimming up the Columbia River come from
hatcheries — raised to be caught by fishermen. The rest are wild.
And many of those salmon are protected under the Endangered
Species Act. For years, Oregon and Washington have been searching
for the best way to catch more hatchery fish while letting the
wild fish return unharmed to their spawning grounds. Now, one
group says they’ve found it. Fish traps were banned on the
Columbia more than 80 years ago. But advocates with the Wild Fish
Conservancy are revisiting the idea as a new, sustainable way to
separate hatchery salmon from wild fish. Cassandra Profita
reports. (OPB)

Government
shutdown likely to delay Skagit steelhead fishery
The partial shutdown of the federal government likely will delay
the state’s plan to open a special catch-and-release fishery for
native steelhead on the Skagit and Sauk rivers. The state
Department of Fish and Wildlife and tribal leaders are seeking
federal permission to open portions of the rivers for steelhead
catch and release during daylight hours starting Feb. 1 and
continuing until April 15. The approval is necessary because the
Skagit’s native steelhead run is threatened, meaning it’s
protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. But the
request for continuing a special sport fishing season is sitting
under a pile of paperwork on the desks of furloughed workers at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s unclear
when NOAA employees will get back to work and when they will
consider the 2019 special season. Mike Benbow reports (Everett
Herald)

Government
shutdown leads to cancellation of Kalaloch razor clam digs
At the request of Olympic National Park, the state Department of
Fish & Wildlife has canceled razor clam digs scheduled for
Kalaloch beach Saturday through Monday. “We are going to cancel
that and we will send out a media release later this morning,” Lee
Taylor, Olympic National Park acting superintendent, said
Wednesday. Taylor declined to discuss the park’s reasoning behind
the cancellation. Fish & Wildlife and Olympic National Park
co-manage razor clam digs at Kalaloch, which is located within the
park. Fish & Wildlife coastal shellfish manager Dan Ayres said
the request came as a result of the government shutdown. Michael
Carman reports. (Peninsula Daily News)

Applicants
sought for Salish Sea Stewards program
The Skagit Marine Resources Committee is accepting applications
for its Salish Sea Stewards program. The program, which is in its
sixth year, offers 40 hours of classroom and field-based training
on the region’s marine resources in order to prepare volunteers
for various research, monitoring and outreach efforts. The
training will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, March 19 to May
21, at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 10441
Bayview-Edison Road.... Applications for the 2019 program are
being accepted through March 1. Participation requires a $12 fee
for a background check. The application is available at
skagitmrc.org and can be submitted by email to
tracya@co.skagit.wa.us, or by mail to: Skagit County Public Works,
Attn: Tracy Alker, Skagit MRC Coordinator, 1800 Continental Place,
Mount Vernon, 98273-5625. Kimberly Cauvel reports. (Skagit Valley
Herald)

Puget Sound Once Teemed with Herring. Can the Industry Be Revived?
“If there is no fish, even herring is a fish,” goes an old Yiddish
saying. No matter how bad things got, herring was plentiful — a last
resort, but one that made its way into the canon of Jewish cuisine (and
to the butt of more than a few Jewish jokes). Herring’s prominence in
Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine comes from its ability to flourish in the
brackish waters of the Baltic Sea, explains Gil Marks in his
Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. The Jews of Europe ate it with black bread
and boiled potatoes and served it for Shabbat Kiddush and to break their
fasts. When they immigrated to the United States, they brought the
tradition with them, and herring — once a poor man’s food — shows up at
lavish Shabbat spreads. However, Jews weren’t the only immigrants with
attachments to the small, fatty fish. The large Scandinavian population
that landed in Seattle also relied on them, as did tribal communities
for thousands of years prior. And until about 40 years ago, Puget Sound
teemed with herring. Naomi Tomky writes. (Jewish in Seattle Magazine)

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Salish Sea Communications provides communications and public relations services that raise visibility and engage audiences. Drawing on over 30 years experience in private, public and not-for-profit work, Mike Sato brings to you his skills and insights in developing and carrying out your print, electronic and social media projects and products. "I've been in the communications business since 1977 starting with community weekly newspapers then working for Seattle City Light, the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, Hawaiian Electric Company and, for 20 years, People For Puget Sound." Salish Sea Communications: Truth Well Told. WA State UBI #601395482